Tuesday, October 05, 2010

This story is making the rounds online, used mostly as an example of how heartless conservatives are, but it really depends on how you write the story. The facts are these.

Obion County, Tennessee has no fire department. The city of South Fulton offered to extend coverage by its fire department to homes nearby but outside the city limits. Since those homeowners do not pay the city taxes which support the fire department, the city required payment of $75 per year for fire protection. One homeowner declined to pay the fee, so when his house was on fire the city fire department declined to respond.

Think Progress writes that, “As the Cranicks fled their home, their neighbors alerted the county’s firefighters…” and goes on to say that the firefighters declined to fight the fire. That line is incorrect, because the county has no firefighters. The neighbors, in fact, alerted the city’s fire department, but the Cranicks had chosen not to be covered by the city.

Think Progress is so eager to criticize the provision of services only to those who are willing to pay for those services, which they seem to regard as a “right wing radical” concept, that they get the facts wrong in what they write even though the facts are stated correctly in the block quote which they provide. They say that “the county’s fire services for rural residences is based on household subscription fees,” but the quoted source reveals, and they even highlighted the sentence, “Each year, Obion County residents must pay $75 if they want fire protection from the city of South Fulton. But the Cranicks did not pay.”

"I thought they'd come out and put it out, even if you hadn't paid your $75, but I was wrong," said Gene Cranick.

This guy seriously thought that he would get the service without paying for it. He intended to get the service without paying for it. Think Progress thinks that it is wrong for him not to get the service without paying for it.

The implication is, and Think Progress actually and falsely states, that the county provides fire services, but only on a “fee for service” basis, but that is not the case. The county provides no fire service at all. The city extends its fire service outside its jurisdiction, but they do not provide that service free of charge.

Paul Krugman chimes in, noting that conservatives approve of the incident and saying that this is “essentially the same as denying someone essential medical care because he doesn’t have insurance.”

How about if he was offered health insurance for a nominal fee and decided he didn’t want to pay for it, Paul? How about if he didn't pay for insurance because he assumed he didn't need to; assumed that he would get the care even if he didn't have insurance?

"I thought they'd come out and put it out, even if you hadn't paid your $75, but I was wrong," said Gene Cranick.

This guy seriously thought that he would get the service without paying for it. He intended to get the service without paying for it. Paul Krugman thinks that it is wrong for him not to get the service without paying for it.

The story's headline says that “Firefighters watch home burn down,” but that appears to be false. The story says repeatedly that the fire department “did not respond,” which means that they did not come to the scene, because the homeowner was not a subscriber. That means they were not there and did not “watch the house burn down.”

This is how we argue issues today. By falsely claiming that heartless firefighters watched a helpless family’s home burn to the ground; by painting pictures of a mercenary fire department that won’t work unless it can pillage the taxpayer’s pocket; by casting governments as the heartless monsters throwing children out in the cold.

The city of South Fulton could have left the county areas with no fire protection at all. It could have decided it would provide protection only to the people who were paying the taxes which provided the funds for maintaining its fire department. It decided to offer help to county residents and required only that those residents chip in a nominal fee to help cover the cost. This guy said no. He got back the same as he contributed.

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About Me

I grew up in the Air Force, and served in diesel-electric submarines during the Cold War. I worked in the steel industry until it sort of died in the 80's, then in landscape management until recently, when health issues demanded retirement.

I believe government should intrude in the lives of its citizens to the minumum possible degree, but I also know that it must be big enough to
"get the job done." To me the job of government includes concepts that are usually thought of as liberal such as stringent regulation of necessary monopolies, regulating all business enough to prevent it from becoming predatory, providing necessary
comfort to citizens who are rendered destitute by calamity outside their reasonable control, and protection of our environment and natural resources.